EVENT HISTORY

THE STORY BEHIND 10YFAN

Told by Liz Gillen "The beginning: Harri"

“Mummy are all these people really climbing for me?”

10YFan started in our kitchen one Winters evening, early 2015. Our four year old son Harri had been diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, an aggressive form of cancer just before Christmas 2014 and Steve Western had called in to talk to us about his amazing and slightly bonkers fundraising idea of climbing Pen Y Fan 10 times in 24 hours. Incredibly he wanted to do it for our son.

Having a child diagnosed with cancer is devastating. Your whole world is blown apart and however much you hold on to hope and live for each day, the fear and worry for your child and your family never goes away. What makes this awful situation even harder is that families like ours also face the financial burden of cancer as the cost of living increases at the same time as one of you having to stop work to care for your child. It is often hard to accept offers of help, particularly financial, and we were no exception. However, we knew that this offer was a lifeline for us, one less burden and to say we are grateful to Steve and this wonderful event doesn’t even come close.

Since that first year, many people have taken part in 10YFan, showing huge amounts of courage and bravery of their own, climbing for their own personal reasons and loved ones and in turn raising much needed funds for charities very close to our hearts. 


 What started as a conversation in our kitchen to help us and our family has grown year on year and to be involved in an event that epitomises the bravery of our son and his wonderfully supportive older sister and strives to help children like them means the world to us. 

We would like to thank every person who has climbed, volunteered or helped in any capacity over the last few years but most of all we would like to thank Steve for coming up with the crazy idea to begin with.
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